Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Don't you just love making cute Halloween decorations! Here's a easy to follow but rather lengthy tutorial for making pumpkin head wire dolls! These handcrafted dolls are such a fun craft for anyone to make! You can dress them up in so many ways using colorful and adorable fall flowers and leaves! And the best part, most of the materials used are $1 or less!

Small Pumpkins

Floral Wire

Embroidery Thread

Faux Fall Leaves

Faux Fluffy Flowers

Ice Pick or Sharp Pointed End

Hot Glue Gun/Glue Sticks

Acrylic Paint

Skewer Sticks

Wire Cutters/Scissors

Begin by inserting an ice pick or sharp pointed end into the bottom of a small pumpkin (which will be the head) about halve way up.

Next, cut a 24" piece of floral wire (Dollar Tree) for the taller doll and fold in half. The smaller doll was made with an 18" piece of floral wire. Next, place a dab of glue on the folded end and insert up into the base of pumpkin. Let dry.

Next, twist the wire a couple of times, creating the neck. To make the arms, take one of the wires, stretching it horizontally and measure 1 1/2" from neck, folding the wire towards the neck, wrap around the vertical wire and down.

*I painted on the eyes by dipping the flat end of a skewer stick in black paint and dabbing it onto the pumpkin. Next, I dipped the pointed end of the stick into the paint and made triangles on top of the circles, blending them in. I also used the pointed end of the stick to add the mouth. And after drying, I added white dots on the eyes by also using the pointed end of the stick.

For the left arm, stretch the wire out horizontally, measure again 1 1/2" and fold back towards neck and wrap over the first arm and down. Next, to create the torso, grab the two long ends and twist together four or five times, measuring 3/4 of an inch and be sure to match up the length of the legs, cutting off any excess wire.

To wrap the doll, Place a dab of hot glue on the middle of the torso and lay the end of the embroidery thread on top, and begin wrapping the thread around the torso a few times and up towards the arm . . .

and begin wrapping the arm as evenly and neatly as possible. If the wrapping becomes open and uneven, just push back the threads together.

When reaching the end of the arm, place a small dab of glue on the end and wrap the thread around several times and back towards the torso.

After wrapping the arm back and reaching the torso, wrap around the torso a few times and then begin wrapping around the other arm, the same, as before,

dabbing hot glue on the end, wrapping around end a few times and then wrapping back towards the torso, wrapping around it a few times, up towards the neck. Then wrap around the neck towards the base of the pumpkin head, wrapping evenly as you go up, then wrap back down to the arms . . .

there, wrap a few times diagonal across the shoulders, one side at a time, criss-crossing, creating an X around the shoulders and arms.

Continue to wrap down towards the leg and end, applying hot glue and wrapping several times and back up to the other leg, wrapping around bottom torso before starting on the leg.

Once back up to the torso, wrap several times, filling in any open spots, then place a dab of glue on center of torso, wrapping thread around several times to seal and cutting off excess thread.

To make a cover dress suit, add a dab of glue on torso and place a coordinating color thread on top.

Begin wrapping torso, up to underneath the arms, wrapping each side, creating an X around the shoulders, back up to form the top of the suit and wrapping down and around the torso and then each leg and back to the torso for the bottom portion. Finish with a dab of glue on torso and wrapping thread around to seal and complete the look.

To dress the dolls:

1. Take a bunch of fluffy flowers . . .

2. And separate the layers of the flower.

3. Line up the layers into sizes from large to small.

4. Beginning with the smallest flower layer, fold in half, and make very small slits in a + pattern to widen opening.

5. Make tiny slits on all the layers - from small to large to pull on to the wire dolls, layering by sizes for a fluffy look!

And finally, adding the smallest layer to the pumpkin top for an adorable hat!

For the larger wire doll, I glued on leaves to the front and back, and added the plastic flower sepal from the bunch for the hat.